After 140 days on the Capitol in Austin, the Texas Legislature has simply wrapped up its 89th session.
This 12 months, state lawmakers handed over 1,200 payments. Amongst them have been a number of vital items of laws targeted on power and the atmosphere. Barring a veto from Gov. Greg Abbott, these will quickly turn out to be legislation in Texas.
Right here’s a breakdown of a few of these measures.
A push for water safety and wildfire resilience
Abbott opened this 12 months’s legislative session by naming water as considered one of his high priorities.
“We’ll make the biggest funding in water within the historical past of Texas,” stated Abbott in his State of the State deal with. “We’ll faucet into new water provides and restore pipes to save lots of billions of gallons of water every year.”
The numbers again up the necessity: In accordance with the Texas Water Improvement Board, groundwater availability is predicted to drop by 25% by 2070. Provide will likely be lowering whilst demand is predicted to double – presumably a lot sooner.
Throughout the Texas Plains and Panhandle, farmers rely closely on groundwater for irrigation, placing huge strain on the state’s aquifers. However that’s additionally altering in Texas.
“Our municipal demand is steadily rising and can surpass the irrigation,” stated L’Oreal Stepney, chairwoman for the Texas Water Improvement Board, earlier than lawmakers earlier within the session.
“Municipal goes to be the primary consumer, and it’ll be right here earlier than we all know it,” she added.
A brand new invoice, Senate Invoice 7, would pump $1 billion every year into the Texas Water Fund. The cash will go towards growing new water sources and shoring up previous infrastructure — a lifeline for each farmers and rising cities.
In the meantime, the Panhandle, nonetheless reeling from the state’s largest-ever wildfire final 12 months, noticed motion on one other entrance. Lawmakers handed SB 34, aimed toward strengthening rural firefighting capability — most of which depends on volunteers. The invoice boosts potential grant funding and help for these departments.
Each the water and wildfire payments are actually on Gov. Abbott’s desk.
— Brad Burt, Texas Tech Public Media
Lawmakers say no to renewable power limits – however sure to grid funding
One of many large questions this session: would Texas put the brakes on renewable power?
Proposals like Senate Invoice 715 and Senate Invoice 388 sought to restrict the expansion of wind and photo voltaic – or at the very least make them dearer to develop. Supporters argued that might assist stabilize the grid. Critics warned it could solely drive up prices.
In a uncommon alliance, environmental, enterprise and renewable power teams pushed again and each payments failed. Bryn Baker, senior coverage director for Texas Vitality Consumers Alliance, was amongst these main the opposition.
“That is about value and reliability. Full cease. And for those who’re speaking about making issues dearer – you’ve bought a complete bunch of parents and anxious,” Baker stated.
As a substitute, lawmakers authorised a serious growth of the Texas Vitality Fund: $5 billion extra to assist construct new energy vegetation and fund grid resilience tasks.
— Mose Buchele, KUT Austin
Holding chemical storage away from properties
Texas lawmakers have authorised a ban on sure sorts of outside chemical storage services being situated near properties, a response to an Odessa-area industrial hearth practically a 12 months in the past that allegedly crammed a neighborhood with “black sludge.”
State Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R-Odessa) proposed the ban after the large hearth in July 2024 at Permian Basin Containers, a facility the place a mixture of oil industry-related chemical compounds and liquids have been saved in stacked piles of enormous plastic tubs.
Folks dwelling proper subsequent door to the power stated in a ensuing lawsuit that the hearth flooded their neighborhood with a mysterious sludge that seeped into properties and vehicles. The neighbors additionally reported a powerful, noxious odor within the wake of the hearth. Landgraf additionally raised considerations in regards to the potential for groundwater contamination from the incident.
Landgraf’s laws, Home Invoice 3866, was despatched to the governor’s desk within the last days of the state’s 2025 legislative session. It creates a ban on “intermediate bulk container recycling” services being situated inside 2,000 toes of a personal residence.
— Travis Bubenik, Marfa Public Radio
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